Pretty in the Palouse

It’s a surprisingly nice day here in the Palouse country of eastern Washington for the Cal-WSU football game set to start in about 20 minutes. Shirt-sleeve weather, in fact, at a time of year when the weather can start to get raw hereabouts.

Martin Stadium is the smallest facility in the Pac-10, and will be in the Pac-12 as well, and even with that, there’s a miniscule crowd on hand for this “epic” tilt. There’s more aluminum seats than people in those seats.

With Kevin Riley out for the season, tailback Shane Vereen has taken his place as a team captain. Solid guy, that Shane. The Bears are going to need his nifty running today with Brock Mansion making his first career start.

It’s my first time back in this remote outpost since I first covered Cal football in the early-mid 80’s. There was one November game I covered here where the wind was so strong, a Cal punter named Mike Ahr, facing the brutal wind, got off a kick that went straight up … and back over his head for a minus 4-yard punt. On another effort, he shanked his kick and the ball sailed completely off the field of play laterally and into the stands.

By contrast, today is Hawaii.

(I just saw Joe Starkey here in the pressbox. I reminded him of that game and he in turn reminded me that that Mike Ahr game with the wind was actually played in Spokane at Joe Albi Stadium, not here at Martin Stadium in Pullman. Thanks, Joe.)